Q&A;

Tonight we define technical terms like slowdown, framerate, and FMV. And if that's not interesting to you just think: Cop and 1/2.

Framerate or Slowdown?

I haven't played B-T, so I don't know what the deal is with its framerate, but I was hoping you could clear something up anyway. When attempting to explain to a reader how bad the framerate in B-T is, you describe a part of the game where "jumping, rolling, shooting or turning quickly" will "be ultimately a great deal slower" than what it should be. Hold on a sec here, isn't what you described in your response what you normally refer to as "slowdown"? Doesn't a game with a bad framerate mean the motion isn't animated as smooth as one would like, but the jump or roll or whatever is still executed just as quickly, in the exact same amount of time? One of us is confused by what slowdown means, and I'm guessing it's me, so feel free to set me straight.

Justin Ebedes
Perth, Western Australia

No, you're absolutely right about slowdown. That's when the framerates are perfectly consistent but the physics, AI, etc... bog down the CPU. As for Banjo-Tooie, it's a combination of the two things. It both has nasty slowdown and bad framerates at times. It's a nasty combination indeed.

Top 7

Nice job updating the QA for the site. Now I can count on two (2) QAs every weekday. Whee! Anyway, here's some questions for ya.

1: What was your first step into the gaming industry?
2: What would you suggest I do to GET into the gaming industry?
3: Do you like the movie Cop and 1/2?
4: What is your thoughts on the future titles for N64, do you think they will move to NGC or stay? Or will some stay and some leave?
5: I know what great things the NGC has in store for us (multilayer passes, texture compression, etc), but what advantages does PS2 have over GC as of NOW?
6: What is a pass exactly? Is it a 3D model/environmental render?
7: How many layers can GC do in total? I know it can do 8 in one pass, but are there more than just 8 possible layers to implement?

Great questions. Okay, here goes:

1: I started running a fan site that delivered Project Dolphin (now Gamecube) news. The site soon turned more professional even delivering such exclusives as the codename for Gamecube's graphics chip, "Flipper."
2: Depends on what you want to do, but your safest and easiest bet is to get a web domain (www.mygamesite.com) and start writing. Make it reliable, and above all respectable. This is great experience.
3: I'm known to like some pretty lame movies, but Cop & 1/2 is out of my league. Pretty lame.
4: Out of Dinosaur Planet, Eternal Darkness, and Conker I'm pretty sure 2 out of those three will be switched.
5: The PS2 is out and has huge third-party support. It has giant demand, retailers can't and won't be able to keep it on shelves for quite some time. Technically speaking, though, it really hasn't got any advantages save the DVD-playback feature, which is irrelevant to games.
6: I really couldn't define a pass in perfect terms, but my understanding is that it is going through the graphics pipeline once which involves a number of things including rendering, lighting, and texturing. So, being able to only go through once but adding eight texture effects is pretty significant. On the PS2, for instance, you'd have to do that eight separate times (although you can save a little time by storing a few things).
7: As far as we know it can only perform eight at once. If you want to add more effects than that you're going to have to pass everything again, which is going to cost you a lot of power.

Fresh Ideas

Hi,

I just have a few questions:

1) Will Nintendo (as in 1st Party) make many original (meaning not based on link, mario, etc.) games for the Gamecube? While I love Mario, Link, etc., perhaps they should expand their horizons like Sega has.

2) Even though Nintendo is commanding every developer to keep quiet about their gamecube projects, can we expect solid third-party support?

3) Is there a possiblity that Command and Conquer, Metal Gear Solid 2 (or some other metal gear game), any Square game, any Singletrac game (or Incognito, as I think it's called now), or any EA game will come out for Gamecube?

4) Are there going to be any more 10-day contests? I need a new game. . . .and I want it for free. . ..

Thanks, and keep up the good work,
Costa G

1)Definitely. Shigeru Miyamoto (creator of Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong) has already said he's working on an entirely new franchise and doesn't want to focus just on the same old franchises.

2)Most definitely. They've already secured giant companies like EA, Capcom, Konami, Namco, Midway, Infogrames, Ubi Soft, and many more that just can't announce their projects yet.

3)EA titles will make it to Gamecube for sure, but the rest it's hard to say. We've heard over and over, though, that Metal Gear Solid: Sons of Liberty will appear on Gamecube in some form.

4)For the time being we have none planned, but, you never know what could spring up.

Ratings

I could post this quetsion on any Q&A;'s but I chose nintendo simply because I'm a nintendo fanboy and I love you guys more than others. Ok, here's my question: Does your rating system on games apply to all consoles or each console has its own rating system depending on its specs and performace? i.e. Does it necessarily mean that Zelda is a more superior game than Shemue because Zelda scored a perfect 10 and shemue only got 9.7?

No, our rating systems only encompass the site they're on. Meaning IGN64's scores don't accurately reflect IGNpockets. It all depends on the scale. If you see 9.7s on other sites, it probably does mean the scales are the same. However, to answer you question you shouldn't look at it that way. We're not a multi-platform site like that. Dreamcast reviews are to be compared only with Dreamcast reviews. Personally I would say Zelda: Majora's Mask is most definitely superior to Shenmue, but others who like walking around and enduring some nasty voice-acting might disagree. Don't get me wrong, Shenmue is amazing, but it's no perfect ten. I even think 9.7 is a tad bit high, though, it's definitely above a 9.

Animal Forest

Hey, I have noticed that those animal forest communication games were not on the release list. Any chance these games are still coming out? They look interesting, and when Miyamoto is involved you know they will be fun. Any way, just wondering. Thanks.

They're on the release list, but only in the Japanese section right now since it hasn't been announced for America. Sin and Punishment is the only Japanese title on that list because we're hopeful.

Defining FMV and Real-Time

hello i have a few questions for you. Here is number one everybody keeps talking about how a game plays in FMV what is that? and also how the game plays in REAL TIME what does that mean? please tell me. I love your site i go to it every day. NINTENDO ROCKS!!!!

From,
Joe

FMV stands for Full Motion Video. What that means is it was all pre-rendered on a computer which can take hours or even days to process. FMV or pre-rendering as it's called is basically why titles like Toy Story 2 and Antz look so good, because it was all pre-calculated. Final Fantasy VII was one of the first big videogames to use extensive FMV. All those highly graphical cut-scenes are pre-rendered, which mean they don't use an ounce of the PlayStation's power, really. Real-time cut-scenes, found in many videogames, is what you see in titles like Zelda on the N64. The scene uses a real in-game camera with real models and everything else being rendered (processed) by the N64's computer processors. Hope that helps.

Waah.

For the love of God.... please update the letters section. I mean really, how long has it been? It's killing me. Seriously. I mean it's actually killing me. I have a lump. Oh God. Lack of updating gave me cancer. No, no. Its just a Smartie. Heh, sorry. Would you please update the letters section?

-Boogaloo

No can do, my man. Right now we're strapped for resources. I usually write a lot of the IGN64 stuff and Matt (lucky bloke) gets to write most of the IGNcube stuff. Cory, who is contracted from outside the offices, enters all IGNcube's Q&A; and Matt simply can respond to them, and Cory does too. So they can update their Q&A; with little effort. Well, at least Matt. I on the other hand have to find the questions, format them to HTML, enter them into our extensive backend, and update them. So, as you can understand it's hard enough to just get Q&A; in, let alone trying to enter Letters too. Sorry, but until we just have one site to deal with (read: IGNcube) letters may be neglected.

Missing: Aidyn

I was wondering why I have not heard any news on the THQ RPG: Aidyn Chronicles as of late. Was the game cancelled? Was the release date pushed back? Or is it in developer limbo land? It is hard to judge if I should buy this game or not. Being RPG defecient I'm tempted to but the fact that THQ's last RPG for the N64 was a steaming pile of fico matter I think twice about it. I never buy a game with out renting it or reading a review from one of the editors on this site first. So have any of the editors for IGN played a demo version yet or heard anything new about the game? I would really appreciate your input. Thanks.
-Scrodomodius

Well, right now Aidyn is supposed to be released some time next year. But, we're beginning to think it might not make the cut if holiday software sales are sluggish. Basically, if people are buying N64 games during its biggest sales period, why would they bother later on? Right now it's still on the release list, but we're not so sure. I played it a little at E3, and Matt played it recently, but neither of us have had a chance to be impressed by it. And, believe me, I was (am) hopeful.

Roaster's Club?

Hey Fran my man,

I've got a few things to say about someone who wrote into IGN64 the other day. I think his name was Narf. He seems like an awesome and cool guy. He probably hangs with Wario, Waluigi, Dark Link, and Mr. Glass. I bet that if there was someone else in the world exactly opposite of him, that they would be a velcro-shoe wearin', Full House watchin', Superman playin', short bus ridin', doll collectin', Billy Ray Cyrus haircut wearin', wine cooler drinkin', playa hatin', child touchin', lily livered, spandex wearin', NKOTB lovin', not to mention, monkey a--, low down dirty shame.

That is of course if he had an evil opposite.

Thanks a lot for all of your hard work and dedication. Welcome to IGN64. Consider yourself roasted. (heh, heh, heh....)

Your Eternal Monkey

That's not even a question. Hoo-ha! Now who's roasted, eh, pal?

Missing Jiggies

Where is the section on Glitter gulch mine in your otherwise excellent Banjo-Tooie guide?

The section somehow disappeared. We don't know how it happened, but it's been resolved. You can find it in the walkthrough under number three.

Archiving the 64

WHat's going to happen to IGN64 after the Gamecube launch? Will it stick around for a little while and then go bye-bye like SaturnWorld?

Navarro Parker
San Diego, CA

Well, if there's no more titles coming out it certainly won't be updated. As for archiving, none of our current mainstream sites have had to deal with that yet. I imagine it will still remain visible under the same domain. It just wont' be updated.

What Interview?

What Interview would you be talking about? New job, perhaps? Do you want to abandon us?

It wasn't about a new job and I certainly don't want to leave. Unless the price is right. A lifetime supply of Gamecubes will do.
Who was it then? Well, right now I won't be saying anything until we're ready to bear the fruitage of the interview. I'll just say that it does pertain to Project Dolphin and turned out great.

N-Query by Fran Mirabella III